1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photo apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a photo apparatus and method to enhance yield by minimizing the entire layout of photo process line.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a photo process is used for patterning a substrate when fabricating semiconductor devices, flat display devices, etc. The photo process includes coating a photoresist on a substrate, exposing the photoresist coated onto the substrate, and developing the exposed substrate. When the exposing the photoresist, the coated photoresist is selectively exposed.
FIG. 1 is a layout schematically illustrating a related art photo apparatus.
As shown in FIG. 1, the related art photo apparatus is provided with a loading/unloading unit 10 that loads or unloads a substrate; a cleaning unit 20 that cleans the substrate; a coating line that coats a photoresist onto the cleaned substrate; an exposure unit 110 that applies an exposure process to the photoresist coated onto the substrate; a titler 120 that forms an identification code on the exposed substrate; and a development line that applies a development process to the substrate via the titler 120.
The loading/unloading unit 10 loads the substrate into the cleaning unit 20 after taking the substrate from a cassette being moved by a conveying device. Also, the loading/unloading unit 10 unloads the substrate from the development line, and then loads the substrate into the cassette.
The cleaning unit 20 cleans the substrate that is loaded by the loading/unloading unit 10. The cleaning unit 20 has a cleaning conveyor that conveys the substrate to the coating line and a cleaning part that sprays a cleaning solution onto the substrate conveyed so as to clean the substrate.
The coating line includes: a first robot arm 30 that takes the cleaned substrate out from the cleaning unit 20; a dehydration bake unit (DHP) 40 that dehydrates the substrate supplied by the first robot arm 30; a first conveyor 50 that conveys the dehydrated substrate; a coating unit 60 that coats the photoresist onto the substrate conveyed by the first conveyor 50; a vacuum dryer (VCD) 70 that hardens the photoresist coated on the substrate; a solvent remover 80 that removes solvent from the substrate; a buffer 90 that temporarily stores the substrate from which the solvent is removed; a temperature reducer 92 that reduces the temperature of the substrate supplied from the buffer 90; and a second robot arm 100 that provides the substrate from the buffer 90 to the temperature reducer 92, loads the substrate having the reduced temperature to the exposure unit 110, takes the exposed substrate out from the exposure unit 110, and loads the exposed substrate to the titler 120.
The first robot arm 30 takes the cleaned substrate out from the cleaning unit 20, and loads the cleaned substrate to the dehydration bake unit 40. Also, the first robot arm 30 takes the dehydrated substrate out from the dehydration bake unit 40, and loads the dehydrated substrate to the first conveyor 50.
The dehydration bake unit 40 is formed of a hot plate that is heated at a temperature between about 110° C. and about 130° C. Also, the dehydration bake unit 40 dehydrates the substrate, loaded by the first robot arm 30, using the hot plate.
The first conveyor 50 conveys the dehydrated substrate loaded by the first robot arm 30 to the coating unit 60.
The coating unit 60 includes: a third robot arm 62 that takes the substrate from the first conveyor 50; a coater 64 that coats the photoresist on the substrate loaded by the third robot arm 62; and a fourth robot arm 66 that takes the substrate from the coater 64 and loads the same into the VCD 70, takes the substrate from the VCD 70, and loads the same into the solvent remover 80.
The third robot arm 62 takes the substrate from the first conveyor 50 and loads the substrate into the coater 64. The coater 64 coats the photoresist on the substrate loaded by the third robot arm 62.
After the coater 64 coats the photoresist on the substrate, the fourth robot arm 66 takes the substrate coated with the photoresist out from the coater 64 and loads the same the vacuum dryer 70 into the vacuum dryer 70. Also, after the vacuum dryer 70 hardens the photoresist coated on the substrate, the fourth robot arm 66 takes the hardened substrate out of the vacuum dryer 70 and loads the same into the solvent remover 80.
The vacuum dryer 70 dries the photoresist of the substrate loaded by the fourth robot arm 66 in a low vacuum state.
The solvent remover 80 includes a solvent-removing oven 82 that removes the solvent from the substrate with a softbake hot plate (SHP) and a fifth robot arm 84 that takes the substrate out of the solvent-removing oven 82 and loads the same into the buffer 90.
The solvent-removing oven 82 removes the solvent from the substrate loaded by the fourth robot arm 66 with the SHP, and the substrate is heated to a temperature between about 110° and about 130°.
After removing the solvent from the substrate in the solvent-removing oven 82, the fifth robot arm 84 takes the substrate having no solvent out of the solvent-removing oven 82 and loads the same into the buffer 90.
The buffer 90 temporarily stores the substrate loaded by the fifth robot arm 84.
The temperature reducer 92 lowers the temperature of the substrate loaded by the fifth robot arm 84 to about 23° C. The temperature reducer 92 may be formed in a dual-layered structure including a cool plate.
The second robot arm 100 takes the substrate that is temporarily stored out of the buffer 90 and loads the same into the temperature reducer 92. Also, as the temperature of the substrate is decreased by the temperature reducer 92, the second robot arm 100 takes the substrate having the decreased temperature of the temperature reducer 92 and loads the same to the exposure unit 110. Also, the second robot arm 100 takes the exposed substrate out of the exposure unit 110 and loads the same into the titler 120.
The exposure unit 110 arranges the substrate loaded by the second robot arm 100 and patterns the photoresist on the substrate by applying light to the arranged substrate.
The titler 120 forms the identification code at one side of the substrate loaded by the second robot arm 100. At this time, the titler 120 is provided on the conveyor, so as to form the identification code on the conveyed substrate.
The development line includes: a developing unit 130 that develops the substrate; a drying unit 140 that dries the developed substrate; a turn-conveyor that turns the conveying direction of the dried substrate; and a second conveyor 160 that conveys the turned substrate to the loading/unloading unit 10.
The developing unit 130 develops the substrate that is exposed by the exposure unit 110 and is provided with the identification code formed by the titler. The developing unit 130 includes a developing conveyor connected to the titler 120 and a developing part that develops the substrate by spraying a developer onto the developing conveyor.
The drying unit 140 includes a drying oven 142 that dries the developed substrate by using a hard hot plate (HHP) and a sixth robot arm 144 that takes the substrate out from the drying oven 142 and loads the same to the turn-conveyor 150.
The drying oven 142 heats and dries the substrate conveyed by the developing conveyor of the developing unit 130 with the HHP that is heated to a temperature between about 110° and about 130°.
After the drying oven 142 dries the substrate, the sixth robot arm 144 takes the substrate from the drying oven 142 and loads the same to the turn-conveyor 150.
The turn-conveyor 150 turns the conveying direction of the substrate loaded by the sixth robot arm 144 toward the second conveyor 160. The second conveyor 160 conveys the substrate turned by the turn-conveyor 150 to the loading/unloading unit 160.
The related art photo apparatus includes the cleaning unit 20, the coating line, the exposure unit 110, the titler 120, and the development line, that are arranged in one line. Thus, the substrate loaded by the loading/unloading unit 10 is cleaned, coated, and exposed in series, and then the substrate progresses through the titling and development lines, whereby the photo process is completed.
However, the related art photo apparatus and method has the following disadvantages.
In the related art photo apparatus, the coating line and the exposure unit connected with the development line are formed as one photo line, whereby the entire layout is increased. Also, the coating line, the development line and the exposure line have the different processing times, so that a waiting time occurs, thereby increasing an entire processing time.
If there are problems in any one unit of the photo apparatus, the entire operation rate decreases. If the problems are in the exposure unit 110, it is impossible to operate the coating line, the titler and the development line.